China Bans Four U.S. Shows

China has ordered video-streaming websites in the country to stop providing four U.S. televisions shows for viewing, including CBS’s “The Big Bang Theory” and “The Good Wife,’ reports the Associated Press.

“The move suggests government attention is intensifying on the online-streaming industry, which is freer than state television and China's cinemas to show foreign productions and other content and has stretched the boundaries of what can be seen in the country,” the story reports.

A spokeswoman for Youku, a streaming site, said the company received notification to stop airing “The Big Bang Theory” and “The Good Wife” along with CBS's “NCIS” and ABC's “The Practice.”

The story adds: “The State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television didn't give a reason for its order, said the spokeswoman, who couldn't be named because of company policy.”

The piece also notes: “Online streaming sites regularly receive orders to take down Chinese or foreign TV programs and movies, but usually because the regulator considers them to be too salacious or violent or because they infringe copyright laws. [Streaming site] Sohu's most popular U.S. shows are ‘Nikita’ — episodes from the first and second seasons have been watched a combined total of 472 million times — and ‘Masters of Sex,’ which weren't included in the order.”